Broody Hen Thread!

[chickarooo]

What should I do in the mean time? Move her from mom ? Put a tube and get water in her? She's the only chick so far. The others are 5 days behind.

I say take her inside and look after her she looks pretty bad so I would watch her closely and if she still hasn't drunk after 2 or 3 days get the tube

 

[donnavee]

So mom isn't laying on the baby. She's laying beside it. It's hot outside but should I turn on the heat lamp

Sometimes they lay beside and if the baby is cold, it will usually work it's way under Mom. I would trust her to know when baby is cold.

 

[julie0477]

Update on my hatch - my week
Old chicks are doing great. I had those two straggler eggs that were set a week after the rest. I had resigned to the fact that I was going to have to pitch those eggs. I hardly ever saw her on the nest she was always out in the yard eith the chicks (granted I go to work so I only can speak for late afternoon). She'd sit on them in the evening and thru the night. Anyway this morning one of those eggs had pipped - right on time.

 

[jctid]

I found my missing eggs! Hatch day and they're hiding under the other broody! One has hatched and another 7 have pipped!

I was wondering about this! I had 6 eggs under a broody, and had to keep checking her since other girls would lay in the same nest....sometimes i could NOT find one...I'd even check under her wings an everything. Then the next day, it would be back. Clever girls.

 

[crowinncluckn]

Quote:
That is why I moved my broody to a seperate nest box. The others kept trying to get in the nest box with the broody and I ended up with broken eggs and eggs that I wasn't sure how long some of them had been left uncovered.

 

[jctid]

This was my first time hatching eggs of any sort, so I wanted to see how it would go by doing NOTHING....I pretty much ignored her and let her do whatever she wanted. I watched to make sure she didnt get sickly or weak from not eating, but some days she didnt get up at all, some days she was out for a couple hours at a time! The eggs were not expensive, so all I really had to lose was ten bucks. I thought, "I dont want to do this if it is going to be a lot of work!" In the end I moved her to a new coop on day 18 or so, to keep the babies safe. Now that I have the second coop, I will likely separate the broody, but otherwise I will just leave them alone. 4/6 hatched, and the two that didnt might not have been fertile to start with- I dont know. One died within hours, but the other 3 are growing like weeds! Ill give her more eggs next time- probably a dozen.

Also, someone asked about breeds, mine is a Black Copper Marans. I also have a Blue Copper Marans who was broody about a week later, but I just ignored her and she snapped out of it after a few weeks. (I didnt have more eggs, but hopefully when they do this again in the spring and hatching eggs are everywhere, I will let everyone have eggs!)

 

[chickydee64]

This was my first time hatching eggs of any sort, so I wanted to see how it would go by doing NOTHING....I pretty much ignored her and let her do whatever she wanted. I watched to make sure she didnt get sickly or weak from not eating, but some days she didnt get up at all, some days she was out for a couple hours at a time! The eggs were not expensive, so all I really had to lose was ten bucks. I thought, "I dont want to do this if it is going to be a lot of work!" In the end I moved her to a new coop on day 18 or so, to keep the babies safe. Now that I have the second coop, I will likely separate the broody, but otherwise I will just leave them alone. 4/6 hatched, and the two that didnt might not have been fertile to start with- I dont know. One died within hours, but the other 3 are growing like weeds! Ill give her more eggs next time- probably a dozen.

Also, someone asked about breeds, mine is a Black Copper Marans. I also have a Blue Copper Marans who was broody about a week later, but I just ignored her and she snapped out of it after a few weeks. (I didnt have more eggs, but hopefully when they do this again in the spring and hatching eggs are everywhere, I will let everyone have eggs!)

I use to have Marans...and every hen would go broody..often close to the same time...........They were really good Moms.

 

[crowinncluckn]

Quote:
Other than moving the broody in the very beginning your hatch sounds much like mine. My broody was a Buff Orpington and she was in a coop and run with plenty of food, water and room and was left to her own devices. Other than checking her to make sure she was healthy I did not bother her. I figured she knew way more about hatching and raising chicks than me. She hatched 4 eggs and has been successfully raising them for serveral weeks. Next spring I will be getting Black Copper Marans eggs from my firend and I will let her hatch them. This time I just collected eggs out of the nest boxes for her to hatch. I think hatching under a broody is the only way I will add to my flock in the future. I know letting the mom raise them is 100% better than keeping them in a brooder.

 

[Six Chickies]

Reds eggs are hatching! One hatched, and at least one pipped!! She was almost smothering the one poor chick, in between some eggs, so should I check under her every couple hours to make sure all hatched and future hatched chicks are doing fine?

 

[Emcrowston]

The chicks raised from my speck lady are noe 9 weeks old, they are brahmas. I hatched 16 well summers, french copper Marian's and red mock led leghorns in an incubator, they are nearly 4 weeks old and I have 9 appenzeller eggs under a white star, 8 days in. Hopefully by spring I will have some more layers!